arry out, yet it had not been abrogated. Though perfectly united as to
rejecting the priesthood, they accordingly fell into new fragments,
marked now by hesitations and compromises, and now by grotesque fancies
or by cruel doctrines. For the timid and for those who clung to public
worship it was impossible to believe in Christian life and salvation
without the divinely-appointed means; and in the perplexed effort to
supply the loss of the sacraments their piety resorted to all manner of
ingenious make-believes. Priestly absolution being out of the question,
confession is sometimes made to the "elder" or to a woman, and the
promise of pardon has to do duty for the direct absolution. As the
Eucharist cannot be consecrated, famishing souls resort to types or
memorials of the holy sacrament; and for this _quasi_ communion
rites have been devised which are sometimes pleasing, sometimes bloody
and horrible. One of these is the distribution of raisins by a young
girl; while one sect (which is, however, but indirectly connected with
the Raskol) use the breast of a young maiden instead of the element of
bread. To one of the Bezpopovtsy sects the name of "gapers" is given,
because they are accustomed to keep their mouths open during the
Maundy-Thursday service, that the angels, God's only remaining
ministers, may give them drink from an invisible chalice, since, as they
hold, Christ cannot have wholly deprived the faithful of the flesh and
blood offered upon the cross.

Such are the expedients of the more gentle or enthusiastic to escape
from the religious vacuum into which schism has precipitated them. Quite
different is the course of the more strict and dauntless theologians;
and the ascendency of logic over pious feeling carries with these the
majority of the Bezpopovtsy. No consequence is too revolting for them,
and no hesitating subterfuge worthy of a thought. The priesthood, they
hold, is extinct, leaving only the sacrament of baptism, which the laity
may administer. Make-believes are of no avail. The chain that linked
Heaven with earth is snapped, and can be reunited only by miracle.
Meanwhile, the faithful are like men shipwrecked on a desert island
without a priest among them. Eucharist, penitence, chrism, and, more
than all, marriage, are alike impossible. The priest alone can pronounce
the nuptial benediction; and where there is no priest there can be no
marriage. Such is the ultimate consequence of the schism--the rock